


Good Times, Bad Times, First Times

by verucasalt123



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Fear, First Meetings, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-04
Updated: 2014-07-04
Packaged: 2018-02-07 08:58:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1893054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verucasalt123/pseuds/verucasalt123
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a few significant moments of Melissa's adult life</p>
            </blockquote>





	Good Times, Bad Times, First Times

The first time Melissa McCall saw the two boys playing together, she had a feeling Scott had just made a new best friend. The kid was fast and boisterous and talked a mile a minute – pretty much the opposite of her son – but she noticed that the kid slowed down to wait for Scott, stopped talking to listen when Scott finally had something to say. His name was Stiles (not really, his mother explained, but it was a nickname he’d made up himself and his real name was hard to pronounce so they’d all just gone with it) and he looked like the kind of kid who got his way more often than not. 

They were fairly new in town, Melissa didn’t know anyone there and Claudia, Stiles’ mom, seemed nice. They were _open_ in a way that Melissa wasn’t accustomed to. Claudia invited them over for dinner at after they’d spent half an hour chit-chatting about their boys at the park. Melissa and Claudia were _strangers_ , had no link to each other except that their sons seemed to like playing together. Rafael would never have invited anyone into their home only having been introduced to them that day.

She thought about it later, wondered if maybe his law enforcement experience was what made her husband so closed off to the idea of having other people involved in their life. But then she accepted the invitation, Scott’s father traveling for work that week, and found out that Claudia’s husband was a sheriff’s deputy who didn’t seem the least bit put off (or surprised) when he came home from work and saw a woman he didn’t know in his living room, a kid he’d never seen before running around the backyard with his son. 

 

It wasn’t long before Scott and Stiles were inseparable. They spent entire weekends at each other’s houses. They weren’t exactly next door, but not too far for them to ride their bikes, even Scott who sometimes got winded easily. Stiles was a whirlwind but somehow he always knew when it was time to stop. 

The first time Melissa saw Stiles ditch his bike on the curb and run over to Scott to help him with his inhaler, it was like she was looking at a different kid. All that scattered energy was immediately laser-focused on making sure his friend was all right, and to hell with the scratch on his bike or anything else in the world. They both knew Stiles wasn’t _really_ tired and suddenly now just wanted to go inside to watch television, but that was all right. 

It didn’t always make sense. She’d seen Stiles around other kids over the years, and though he wasn’t (often) outright mean to anyone, he certainly didn’t exhibit the genuine kindness she saw him extend to Scott every day since they’d met. 

 

There were changes piling up faster than Melissa could keep track of, sometimes. She remembered how people in her childhood neighborhood gossiped behind the backs of _single mothers_ , and wanted to go back in time to smack them all after she learned what it was like to be that mom. There were more first times everywhere she looked. 

The first time she went to work and let Scott stay home alone, she rationalized it all over and over again. It was a night shift, he’d be asleep the whole time, he had an adult to call (a police officer, even) if anything happened, she’d be home in time for breakfast, he was almost eleven years old…

She didn’t tell her mother. Melissa never forgot how single mothers were treated when she was growing up. She lived that life now, you did what you had to do, you improvised, you put your best effort in, and that was it.

 

The first time they broke the “no sleepovers on school nights” rule was the night Stiles had gone to the hospital to visit his mother and Claudia didn’t know who he was. Stiles had much more experience being left to his own devices than Scott did, with his dad’s constantly-changing work schedule and his mom’s inability to care for him any longer. 

Stiles didn’t even bother going home. He knew his father would be working so he rode his bike right up into Melissa’s front yard and knocked on the door. The boy was silent, and crying, and looked so terribly heartbroken. She wondered for a minute if this was it, but no, someone on the floor would have called her right away if Claudia had passed this afternoon. So she just pointed Stiles in the direction of Scott’s room and went to the kitchen to place a call to his father, asking if it would be all right for Stiles to stay there. 

She couldn’t stand the thought of Stiles being alone tonight. She let them eat ice cream right from the carton but still made them go to sleep at a decent hour. 

 

There was no way Melissa would have been able to imagine all the first times that would run her over when Scott and Stiles got older. She had plenty of experience with being afraid _for_ her son, but the first time she was objectively afraid _of_ him? It didn’t last, but it was awful. 

The first time she thought – really, truly was convinced – that she was going to die, actually die, any minute now, tied up in some underground cave because _monsters_ …that one gave her a few new gray hairs. 

And then came the first time Melissa was afraid of Stiles. Not Stiles, really. But kind of. It was awful, after. He knew, and she knew he knew, and neither of them could look at each other straight on for just a little while. She couldn’t imagine what his father must have gone through. 

 

But the world keeps turning, and first times keep coming. Some are good, some are bad, but they’re all better than the alternative.


End file.
